An increasing demand for modern mobile electronic products such as smartphones, tablets, and laptop/notebooks has reciprocated a strong demand for the production of microelectronic devices that operate them. To match this demand, microelectronic device manufacturers have increased production and invested time and money in developing techniques for cost-effective fabrication processes. General fabrication processes for constructing a microelectronic device include depositing and etching a material in a reiterative fashion and forming bonding structures on the microelectronic device. Protective coatings may be used in the fabrication of both the microelectronic device and the bonding structures. Typical resist materials that form the protective coatings are highly adhesive to the underlying layer in order to prevent shifting and/or separation during processing. Furthermore, some resist materials may even chemically react and form strong physical bonds with the underlying layer. As such, current removal techniques use wet removal processes with wet etchants to remove the resist materials. The wet etchants include chemicals that can be toxic and/or corrosive, e.g., strongly oxidizing acids, and can be expensive to obtain and dispose. Furthermore, wet etchants are harmful to the environment and can cause environmental contamination.